Back-Up Sump Pumps Can Help Prevent Basement Floods

The rain has come down faster than the ground can absorb it, sending water into the streets in some Sioux Falls neighborhoods. This should be the first signal that water could soon be coming into your basement.

"The ground water will come up and now the sumps are pumping and all of a sudden you have a non-working sump and the basement fills up," Intek owner Jerry Berg said.

Berg has seen it all before when homeowners get caught off guard by heavy rain. He says the problems get even worse if you're not paying attention to the details.

"You have not laid your downspout out after the last rain, so consequently, the water is coming down right beside the house, or you curled up the hose on the sump pump and it's laying beside the house and re-circulating," Berg said.

Berg says having two sump pumps in working order should be enough to keep the water at bay, but you need to check the pumps on a regular basis to make sure neither has broken down.

"Eventually, if you weren't watching, you could have, in a wet neighborhood, water for several years and thinking that both are working nicely when, in fact, one is already burned out and the other is about to," Berg said.

Having an extra pump on hand can easily replace a pump that fails. Even with everything in place to help prevent a flooded basement, there is still one more thing homeowners need to keep in mind.

"During a heavy rain, you just have to be down there checking your basement. You just can't not check it, and you got to catch it early. If you catch it early, it's usually a very minimal problem," Berg said.

Berg says many of the newer neighborhoods in Sioux Falls are developing over what used to be wetland. He says those home owners need to be even more cautious about water backing up into their basements.